TY - JOUR

T1 - We Strike, Therefore We Are?

T2 - A Twitter Analysis of Feminist Identity in the Context of #DayWithoutAWoman

AU - Lommel, Lillan

AU - Schreier, Margrit

AU - Fruchtmann, Jakob

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2019, Institut für Qualitative Forschung,Internationale Akademie Berlin gGmbH. All rights reserved.

PY - 2019/5/25

Y1 - 2019/5/25

N2 - In this article, we explore the collective identity of feminist activists as expressed on Twitter in the context of "Day Without A Woman." We conceptualize collective feminist identity by drawing upon literature on identity, feminism, and social movements. We expected to find a politically-defined group boundary around supporters of "Day Without A Woman." Using the online tool Netlytic, we collected tweets posted from accounts in Washington D.C., New York City, and Los Angeles. In a preliminary step, we performed a word count analysis and coded frequent words within the collected tweets into categories of meaning. Based on these categories, we drew a sub-sample of tweets, which we scrutinized in-depth using discourse analysis. Through this qualitative analysis, we show that the group boundary of the supporters of "Day Without A Woman" is defined by the common denominator of their negative relation to Donald TRUMP. While the supporters stress the relevance of feminist claims, barriers to identifying as a feminist seem to persist, as reflected in those whom we call "flexi-feminists." The boundary between supporters and non-supporters of "Day Without A Woman" hence seems to broaden from a line to a space which can be occupied without complete group entry. In this space and beyond, supporters express feminist identity through an "us" versus "him" logic.

AB - In this article, we explore the collective identity of feminist activists as expressed on Twitter in the context of "Day Without A Woman." We conceptualize collective feminist identity by drawing upon literature on identity, feminism, and social movements. We expected to find a politically-defined group boundary around supporters of "Day Without A Woman." Using the online tool Netlytic, we collected tweets posted from accounts in Washington D.C., New York City, and Los Angeles. In a preliminary step, we performed a word count analysis and coded frequent words within the collected tweets into categories of meaning. Based on these categories, we drew a sub-sample of tweets, which we scrutinized in-depth using discourse analysis. Through this qualitative analysis, we show that the group boundary of the supporters of "Day Without A Woman" is defined by the common denominator of their negative relation to Donald TRUMP. While the supporters stress the relevance of feminist claims, barriers to identifying as a feminist seem to persist, as reflected in those whom we call "flexi-feminists." The boundary between supporters and non-supporters of "Day Without A Woman" hence seems to broaden from a line to a space which can be occupied without complete group entry. In this space and beyond, supporters express feminist identity through an "us" versus "him" logic.

KW - Management studies

KW - collective identity

KW - contemporary feminism

KW - Social Movement

KW - Twitter analysis

KW - critical discourse analysis

KW - U.S. presidential elections

KW - kollektive Identität

KW - Feminismus

KW - soziale Bewegungen

KW - Twitter-Analyse

KW - kritische Diskursanalyse

KW - U.S. presidential elections

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85070553445&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.17169/fqs-20.2.3229

DO - 10.17169/fqs-20.2.3229

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 20

JO - FQS - Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung

JF - FQS - Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung

SN - 1438-5627

IS - 2

M1 - 16

ER -